Have you ever checked your phone for a social media update in the middle of a meeting? Or started looking at news headlines in the middle of a group lunch? Or got distracted by unimportant texts while doing deep work on a project?
It is very easy to be drawn into looking at our phones. This can lead to unproductive behavior and sloppy work. A recent article by Liz Fosslien on the Pocket website wonders why we have allowed these habits to become socially accepted.
I used to do nothing in the face of indiscriminate gadget use. Now, I’ve come to believe that doing nothing is no longer O.K. Staying silent about bad technology habits is making things worse for all of us.
How do we as a change these habits to make them less desirable? Perhaps we need to develop what investor Paul Graham calls “social antibodies.”
He uses the example of cigarette smoking: smoking in public became taboo over the span of just one generation after social conventions changed.
Like cigarettes, our personal technology use can become a bad habit. People enter a zone when they use their gadgets. Checking email or scrolling through Facebook can be intoxicating and disorienting. Tech makers design these products using the same psychology that makes slot machines addictive. The variable rewards built into apps make time pass quickly and can make people oblivious to what’s happening around them.
How can we build up social antibodies in the workplace? One way is to set up well articulated standards.
The best way to prevent this waste of time is for someone senior to mandate a “no-screen meeting.” In my experience conducting hundreds of workshops, the discussions declared device-free are by far more productive. Setting expectations up front is equivalent to administering a distraction vaccine.
Learn more about how to build social antibodies by reading the rest of the article.
Efficient Librarian 